Section 5: Equality

Diversity in the workplace, reflecting the diversity in our
communities, will make a tangible contribution to addressing wider
inequality issues in society.Education Working for All!

Context and ambition

At the heart of our programme is a commitment across Government
and our delivery partners to advance the interests of all our young
people. By offering young people - from as early as during their
primary/nursery school education - a clear picture of all the
career choices available to them, we will equip them with the
skills and knowledge to make more informed choices throughout their
school studies and beyond.

This underlines the Government's commitment to fairness and
social solidarity. The First Minister has made clear that this
Government will have a relentless focus on improving the public
services and economy of Scotland, and tackling inequality.

To achieve sustainable economic growth, we will need to develop
the talents of all our young people. The Commission's report sets
out the challenge and our response is to see our action not as
separate activity but as an approach to advancing equality embedded
throughout our response to the report's recommendations.

Throughout the programme is the message, delivered in activity
in schools, colleges and by employers, that all careers can be open
to our young people. And through a national campaign, we will
support parents and carers as they help young people to make
choices at key points in their lives about the future. Similarly we
will develop guidance to help teachers and practitioners work with
young people as they explore the advanced provision on offer to
them.

We recognise that this change in hearts and minds - the ability
to realise opportunities are available to all - will not happen
overnight: we are already working with delivery partners and local
government to embed these principles of fairness and equality
throughout their services to young people. There are specific
actions throughout the programme that will address concerns in the
Commission's report, for example, improving gender balance on some
Modern Apprentice frameworks. Our success measures - at
annex
B - demonstrate we are ambitious about tackling this imbalance
and have developed targets that encourage systemic change rather
than small incremental improvements. We want young people quickly
to see more options available to them.

While we are committed to a mainstream change of provision in
education and training, we recognise that some groups need extra
support and guidance. Throughout the plan, there are instances when
specific interventions are needed to drive change, for example, in
the plan being developed by the Scottish Funding Council, Skills
Development Scotland and others to reduce the gender imbalance in
education and training.

Taking an evidence based approach
[13] the Commission concluded from an early stage that there are
currently barriers which require specific measures to be taken. In
particular they concluded that:

Gender stereotyping in education exists as does gender
segregation in a significant number of the occupations and
careers young people pursue;

Young people from Scotland's black and minority ethnic
communities embark on a narrower range of pathways than young
people from the population as a whole and are more likely to
experience unemployment;

Young disabled people are much more likely to experience
difficult transitions through education and to be unemployed
after they leave education;

And young care leavers as a group experience some of the
poorest educational and employment outcomes of any group of young
people in society.

Our early action has already supported Skills Development
Scotland to undertake further work to address gender segregation
and support young disabled people, minority groups and care leavers
into training and employment programmes. And we will go further to
meet our targets for looked after young people and young disabled
people who will be supported to take their place in the world of
work.

This means concerted effort across the programme as well as a
campaign to ensure no one thinks in terms of a "boy's job" or a
"girl's job". We are already using pilot activity and early
research to test our approach and ensure, through our programme
management reporting, we see progress in line with our interim
measures.

That approach will see changes in the demographic in the
workplace as well as providing more of our young people with
examples of their peers overcoming challenges with our support to
take up a place in education, training or employment that is
sustainable and allows them to make a full contribution to their
community.

In order to achieve our overall purpose of sustainable economic
growth, we need to create social and economic justice. This plan
contains a coherent set of actions that will help more of our young
people take their place in the labour market, find a role in their
communities, and ensure that all our young people wake up in the
morning, knowing that they are helping to move Scotland forward. We
aim to achieve our aims with the powers we have at our disposal.
With greater control over our own decision-making, we could achieve
more.

During 2014-2015, we will see or are already
seeing:

Initial equalities pilot action implemented, creating new
opportunities for those from currently underrepresented
groups.

During 2015-16, we will see:

Scottish Funding Council publishing a plan to reduce gender
imbalance on courses in joint action with Skills Development
Scotland and other partners;

Targeted Modern Apprenticeship campaign activity
developed;

Supported employment opportunities in the third sector
provided for care leavers and other groups of young people who
face significant barriers to employment. Lead body identified to
support recruitment of young disabled people.

During 2016-17, we will see:

Secondary school inspection of active gender targeting in
relation to college based learning and foundation apprenticeships
begins;

Scottish Funding Council implementing their plan to reduce
gender imbalance on courses which they will report on
annually;

New work experience model for young disabled people
introduced and improved approach to careers services for young
disabled people implemented.

During 2017-18, we will see:

Delivery of mentoring support for young people in care as
part of the Invest in Young People accolade;

Introduction of supported work experience programme for young
disabled people.

During 2018-19, we will see:

Achievement of our target to increase the percentage of
employers recruiting young people directly from education to
35%.

During 2019-2020, we will see:

Achievement of Modern Apprenticeship volume target and
diversity targets.

During 2020-2021, we will see:

Expanded provision fully embedded within Curriculum for
Excellence, tested by Education Scotland, and valued by young
people, their parents and teachers and practitioners as evidenced
by uptake and outcomes;

College outcome agreements academic year 2021-22 reflect a
regional curriculum, with vocational options widely available,
informed by secondary schools, local authorities and
employers;

KPI 1 - Be one of the top five performing countries in the EU
for youth unemployment by reducing the relative ratio of youth
unemployment to 25-64 unemployment to the level of the fifth best
country in the EU by 2021.

KPI 2 - Be one of the top five performing countries in the EU
for youth unemployment by reducing the youth unemployment rate to
match the fifth best country in the EU by 2021.

KPI 7 - Reduce to 60 per cent the percentage of MA frameworks
where the gender balance is 75:25 or worse by 2021.

KPI 8 - Increase by 5 percentage points the minority gender
share in each of the 10 largest and most imbalanced superclasses by
2021.

KPI 9 - Increase the number of MA starts from minority ethnic
communities to equal the population share by 2021.

KPI 10 - Increase the employment rate for young disabled people
to the population average by 2021.

KPI 11 - Increase positive destinations for looked after
children by 4 percentage point per annum resulting in parity by
2021.